I have always been a Type A personality and I guess a bit of a workaholic. I admit I love setting goals, I love challenges, and I love being productive. It makes me happy to be busy, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Sometimes it can get in the way of what’s really important.
At 67, I have cut my work schedule back somewhat, but I still enjoy the work because it’s very interesting and challenging. My typical work schedule these days is to be in the field doing Light Pole Inspections three days a week. That schedule includes Saturday mornings, because on Saturdays the traffic is usually lighter and the properties I inspect are a lot less crowded. So I get more done.
However, this past Friday evening I received a text from a friend that I haven’t seen in several years. We were (and still are) very good friends having played baseball together for 15 years and golfed together dozens of times. But Covid, and the fact that he lives a long way from where I am, has made it really tough to get together.
He said he was going to be in my area Saturday morning, dropping off his wife at a church conference she needed to attend. He asked me if I wanted to golf with him and my first thought was, I can’t do it because I have to work tomorrow. I mentioned the text message to my wife, and she immediately encouraged me to consider doing it. She said, “This is a good friend you haven’t seen in forever, so you need to forget about work and make it happen.”
I decided she was right! She has always been my guiding light, so I texted back immediately that I would love to golf and would go online right away and look for a tee time. We got a 10:15am tee time at San Juan Hills Golf Course and I was really excited to see my friend and get to spend some quality time with him. And we did have a great time together. Funny thing is, the golf course wasn’t in great shape, the greens had just been punched, and one of the holes was shut down for renovation. But none of that mattered. Just being outdoors, spending time with a good friend, made it a great day!
And that got me thinking… Life is expensive, especially in Orange County, so most of us have to work really hard just to make ends meet. But it’s also easy to fool ourselves into thinking that work is all important and that can often lead to neglecting the truly important things in life, like family and friends. I know because I have made that mistake too many times, but I won’t anymore… because I realize now that nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is truly a friend!
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